Influencer
Natalie Barbu on How She Balances Being Rella’s Founder & a Full-Time Content Creator
Being a full-time content creator while maintaining a work-life balance is challenging enough, but Natalie Barbu does both whiles also running creator tech startup Rella. Rella is a comprehensive digital workspace for creators that allows them to manage all aspects of their business. Today, Natalie shares how she got started with content creation, became the founder of Rella, and how she juggles it all.
About Natalie Barbu
Natalie Barbu has been creating content for as long as she can remember. At 15, she began creating content after watching YouTubers post beauty and fashion content.
She shares, “I just started filming, and I loved the community, and I loved the filming process and putting myself on the Internet. So, I kept doing it. That’s how I started.”
Natalie creates lifestyle content, which has evolved with her as she’s gone through college, adulthood, and founded Rella. Lately, her content focuses on productivity and her life as a business owner and founder of Rella, an all-in-one digital workspace for creators managing their businesses.
Natalie’s Most Successful Content
Natalie shares that her favorite content to create is vlogs showing her day-to-day life. Regarding engagement, her most successful content usually centers around work-life balance and showing what life is like as an entrepreneur.
She adds that people love “boring” content, such as everyday vlogs or work-life balance content, because it’s relatable while providing valuable insights.
Natalie also works with various brands, including fashion and lifestyle companies. Some of her fashion collaborations have been with Princess Polly and White Fox. One of her favorite lifestyle companies to work with is Squarespace because she uses their services daily.
“All of those companies that I mentioned allow for a lot of creative freedom where they really let me make whatever content I want, and I really appreciate that because sometimes some brands give you a script or they tell you what to do, and it doesn’t resonate well with your audience.”
Her number one tip for creators trying to grow is to consistently post online, even if it’s not your best content.
She adds, “Another thing is providing value. There is so much content on the Internet right now that you have to provide something different, and that can be hard… If you’re going to film fashion content, don’t just copy other people’s styles. Make sure that you have something that makes it yours. People can tell when you’re being inauthentic.”
Founding Rella
Before founding Rella, Natalie was a full-time creator who kept running into the same problem: frustration over the many tools she needed to track brand deals, revenue, projects, and much more.
“I felt like I was piecing together so many tools, and this was aside from actually having to create the content myself… I would ask my friends what they were using, and they would say the same thing. They’re using a bunch of tools that are not made for creators. It’s really inefficient.”
This pain point led Natalie to create Rella. Rella allows creators to plan content, send invoices, gain revenue insights, check analytics, and much more rather than using many apps to accomplish the same tasks.
Natalie shares that marketing for Rella has been primarily organic and a lot of word of mouth from the community.
“I was showing the behind-the-scenes of Rella before it even launched, so people felt like they were a part of the journey. We talked to over a hundred influencers so that we could hear their story, hear their pain points, and then that way they felt connected to what we were building.”
On Rella’s social media, they share behind-the-scenes snippets, app features, and social media tips and tricks. They also host monthly webinars to provide creators with additional value.
Balancing Content Creation and Managing Her Business
As a full-time content creator and the founder of Rella, Natalie has a packed schedule, increasing her need for excellent time management.
Natalie shares that she works on content creation over the weekends and Rella during the week. She also integrates Rella content on her personal platforms when it’s organic.
“I show them [my followers] behind the scenes, and I also have outsourced some things, so I don’t edit my videos anymore. I have a podcast editor. I try to outsource as much as I can because it’s unrealistic to do everything all on your own, so that’s been one of the things that has helped with time management.”
The most challenging part of being a content creator for Natalie is keeping up with the many trends and changes in social media and maintaining an engaged community.
“Sometimes people get bored with your content and leave, and then you have new people discover you, so trying to keep up with the trends without losing my authentic self and my authentic content while still trying to increase my views, increase my community, provide value, post frequently is the hardest part.”
She adds that creators must also be consumers of social media to stay on top of what people are looking for online.
The Future of the Creator Marketplace
Natalie shares that she is excited to see more people taking content creation seriously as a job and business.
“They didn’t think it was a business. They didn’t think it was a legit thing that you could do, so I’m glad that it’s finally now starting to be recognized a bit as a legit business.”
She also hopes that people will realize that there are many people on social media, but if you differentiate yourself, you can build a successful creative business.
“There is always room for people… If Addison Rae or Charli D’Amelio said it was too late three years ago, then they wouldn’t be the biggest celebrities today. I always think it’s never too late. There’s always space.”
For people interested in starting content creation, Natalie recommends not overthinking your first post and just getting started.
“Your first piece of content will be bad, and that’s okay because you will learn what people want and what people don’t want. You’ll learn how to edit, and you’ll learn what style you like and what content you enjoy posting, so treat the first 10 or 20 pieces of content as throw-away content. It’s just practice.”
Natalie’s Future Plans for Rella
Rella is having an upcoming event in Miami for creators. Natalie shares that these events are designed for creators, not brands or social media managers.
“It’s specifically for content creators that are wanting to treat it [content creation] as a business. We recognize that it’s a business, so if people wanted to get on that, that would be amazing.”
Natalie’s vision for Rella is to make it the operating and management system of choice for creators.
“I hope to really grow it [Rella] so that whenever someone decides that I want to start being a content creator, that’s the first thing that they do is download Rella to help them because that’s going to be their operating system. That’s their management tool to really grow and start organizing their business, so that’s the goal for us, continuing to grow. Our mission is to empower creators to begin treating themselves as businesses from day one.”
